50 new garbage trucks for NSWMA
Published:Wednesday | June 26, 2024 | 12:11 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
The Government will be ramping up its effort to rid sidewalks of abandoned motor vehicles and other forms of bulky waste with the addition of 50 new garbage trucks to the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).
The trucks, which were handed over to the agency on Tuesday, include four crane-mounted garbage trucks to be deployed across the four regions of the NSWMA.
Declaring that the NSWMA will be moving expeditiously to bring law and order to roads and sidewalks, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie decried their deplorable condition.
“Every street, every lane, every avenue you turn, you see abandoned cars, garages have taken over the roadways, what we are seeing therefore is a reduction in the use of our sidewalks. (For) some roadways, traffic has been reduced to single lane with no consideration for people going about their lawful business,” he said.
However, he noted that the Government’s efforts will be made better by the support of citizens.
“It makes no sense you call the radio programme and complain about the abandoned trucks and motor vehicles and when we start to enforce and move it, you talk about its poor people’s business we destroying, you can’t have the best of both worlds,” he said.
Boasting of the “significant investment” that the Government has made to keep Jamaica clean, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the $1.3-billion expenditure will result in improvement in the collection of plastics and other forms of domestic waste.
IMPROVEMENT IN SERVICE
“You will see an improvement in our capabilities to remove bulky waste items from our streets and markets and parks,” he said during the handover ceremony.
Holness signified his administration’s commitment to continuous improvement in the country’s fleet of garbage trucks, noting that 165 trucks have been added to the fleet since 2016.
However, stating that the long-term solution is for the Government to engage in a public-private partnership arrangement to provide these services, the prime minister noted that such negotiations were well advanced.
“In many jurisdictions around the world, this is a service that is contracted out and the Government pays for it. What the Government does is to monitor and regulate the separation of the (garbage). I am confident that Jamaica will begin to see an improvement in the collection of their garbage,” he said.
Meanwhile, NSWMA Chairman Owen Ellington committed to the care and maintenance of the new trucks.
“The use, care management and maintenance of this equipment will be done in such a way that not only will they improve service delivery and reach all the corners in some of the most rural parts of Jamaica, but that they will be around to serve us and last for a long time coming,” he said.
Eleven of the trucks will be allocated to Western Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited, the NSWMA’s regional arm covering Trelawny, Hanover, St James and Westmoreland, and another 14 will go to the Metropolitan Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited, which encompasses Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, and St Thomas. The Southern Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited, which has oversight of Clarendon, Manchester, and St Elizabeth, will receive 11 trucks, while nine will be deployed to St Ann, St Mary and Portland under the Northeastern Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited. Five trucks will be allocated to the NSWMA’s roving team.